I’m writing this mainly for Cynthia, who is depressed and scared. There is no way I can “cheer you up” if you hate our new President-Elect, but I’m hoping you’ll take the gun out of your mouth. It is not as bad as you think. The Republic will survive, maybe even thrive.

The actual good news? TED CRUZ. If nothing else, Donald saved us from a true extremist Tea Partier. Compared to Ted’s, Donald’s policies are highly enlightened. The ones I like best I think are actually better than what we have now.

First, no more stupid Mideast wars. I think the Arab world would actually consider it a good trade, our not going over there to senselessly bomb them back to the stone age, in exchange for our not letting as many of them come here. And yes, of course, create a Safe Zone in Syria so refugees can stay where they want, in their own country. We are simply idiots for not having done this two years ago.

Second, better relations with Russia. This is an area of special expertise for me. Basically, we have started Cold War II by reneging on our ’90’s agreements NOT to surround them with our NATO armies. It is not about Putin taking over Crimea. It’s about our putting four battalions in Poland.

Third, the so-called “national debt” and “deficit” be damned, we are going to invest in our infrastructure again. With a Republican President putting it forward, we have a chance to create a trillion dollars of wealth with a few hundred billion dollars of new money, reprising the ’50’s when we built our interstate highway system. And stimulate the economy with good jobs, lots of them.

Fourth, Obamacare is no loss. Let the Repub’s screw up health care for a while. I think it is the worst government program ever. It transfers wealth from hard-working young people to undeserving middle-agers and health insurance executives. We all have fiftyish friends who got their long-wanted $45,000 shoulder or hip surgeries with their yes-pre-existing conditions “insurance” for a month for $300 (and then dropped it). I have seen multimillionaires with small taxable incomes get $900/ month, while a young server who took an extra part-time retail clerk job see her $600 refund become a $406 tax bill. (Cynthia and I felt so bad for her we invited her to our house, showed her our Obamacare recognition plaque, apologized for inflicting this on her generation, and wrote her a check to cover the bill.) Look at what has just happened to premiums. For many families, a disaster. In 2009 we could have had Medicare for all. This would be as radical as Social Security and Medicare for the old, and like every other civilized country. Instead, we created an abomination. Good riddance.

Finally, stop worrying about the Supreme Court. They blocked Obama’s last appointment for a year, and threatened to block Hilary’s for eight more. All the Dem’s have to do is tit-for-tat, and simply filibuster all of Donald’s appointees. Nine judges, five judges, who cares. Yes, Scott Walker is proposing that the Senate on its first day vote to revoke the filibuster. I’ve looked into this. It is dubious it has to be done the first day (related to the Senate being a continuing body, returning with two-thirds of its membership). Harry Reid’s Senate in November of 2013 changed the rules to ban filibustering Obama’s judges and administrative appointees. But he did NOT change it for Supreme Court judges or legislation.

Reid and Obama had the chance in 2009 to do anything they wanted, with the House, the Presidency, and 60 Senators—thus the ability to stop a filibuster. They still had the ability to change the filibuster rules for the next five years, and they only did it for the non-Supreme appointees. Mitch McConnell threatened to pay back Harry, but he is as terrified as the rest of the Senators of really changing the minority-veto rules. They will not pull the trigger, not even to stack the Court.

By the way, there ain’t gonna be no Mexican-financed wall. The Donald is amazed so many people bought that!

Cynthia and other cheer-ups, stop reading immediately. I am now going to do the Democratic autopsy, and it is going to be bloody. The Republican Party did not win this election. The top Democratic leadership, through mean-spirited and arrogant strategic blunders of the highest order, just gave it away.

Barack Obama told Joe Biden not to run. Why? My guess is spite. Joe opposed the pointless surge in Afghanistan, but Barry knuckled under to the Generals, a Cheney-like chicken-hawk blunder. Tragically unsuccessful. Joe right, Barry wrong. Barry dragged his heels on repealing don’t ask-don’t tell, until Joe forced his hand. Joe was ten minutes ahead of the mood of the country, and we quickly had gay marriage. Joe right, Barry wrong.

I am sad to say our President, instead of rewarding merit, went instead like an insecure bureaucrat to the underling who would not threaten his stature, but was just blindly loyal. Choosing Hilary was like the Republicans’ choosing McCain and Romney. All accomplished politicians, to be sure. But that’s what lost for them, and why Hilary was the worst possible choice in a change year.

Think: the Dem’s had Joe, Bernie, Martin O’Malley, and (briefly) Jim Webb, all of whom would have handily beaten Trump. As has been so often said, they chose the only Democrat on earth who could have lost to him. Colluding with Barry were the top Dems, cheating Bernie with their super-delegates, Saturday debates, questions ahead of time, etc. Think: the alternatives had nothing like Benghazi, private servers, or the pussy-grab-neutralizing Monica legacy on their resumes. For all of Hilary’s hard work and knowledgeable experience, no one should run for office with what she and the Democratic leadership knew she was going to have to face.

You can’t blame Comey for his investigation. She owned the server. And the giant health insurance increases were the fruit of the misconceived Obamacare. The only thing not the Dem’s fault was, in the last few weeks, the effect of long-awaited attack advertising by Trump. Voters were inured to Hilary’s year of attacks, while Trump’s were fresh. And Kellyanne Conway wins the MVP by confiscating Donald’s phone and somehow forcing him to read the teleprompter. Two weeks without a fresh outrage from the Donald was all it took for women and Hispanics to forget (a majority of women voted for Trump, and more Hispanics voted for him than they did for Romney).

I feel so bad for my many Hilary-loving friends. She and they worked so damn hard. I had expected to be happy in their happiness. I truly hope the first half of this lifted the gloom a tad. By the way, I voted for Trump in the primary (guess why) and Dr. Jill Stein in the general. Why didn’t everybody?

Rick Boettger had a Top Secret security clearance in the Army and studied nuclear chemistry at MIT and law at Yale before getting a PhD in business at Berkeley. He earned tenure as a business professor at TCU in Fort Worth before going to Moscow as a Fulbright Professor, writing a book on the economy, hosting a semi-national talk radio show, and retiring to Key West in 1996 at the age of 48. Since then he has worked part-time as a tax and financial advisor, and has been doing investigative journalism since he began at the Blue Paper in 2007​. He is very happily married to his superb copy-editor Cynthia Edwards, the former long-time PIO for the Key West Police Department.

41 Responses to “We Will Survive King Donald”

I was 100 % Trump from the beginning. Mostly because Hillary would been the same as having OBAMA for 4 years. With the dirty nasty way of attacking Trump while she has a rapist husband sure did not help her.
T health care program was a joke and drained money from hard workers that could not afford it. Many paid the fine as it was cheaper than insurance. Obama is the blame for the housing crash not recovering. Only good thing he he did was open relationship with Cuba. Obama took unfair use of his presidency to support Clinton by bashing Trump. Now the 2 faced piece of shit wants to act like a friend of Trump.

We now will have a BUSINESS man run our country and not a BUBBA BITCH.

Do regret that KW did note vote smart and still have Cates. You deserve what you will keep. Maybe KW wants a corrupt city.

To the Trump haters the solution is easy . LEAVE
AMERICA WILL BE GREAT AGAIN
And we got our past do marijuana help.

I did notice at Fantasy Fest that support of Trump was far higher than Clinton. The successful people of the world are the ones that can afford vacations to Key West and this was a clear sign of who successful people wanted.

On the flip side of this I stood a better chance of profiting had Clinton won as I have no question that she would have caused another foreclosure disaster and as a property investor I would have made more money. Will give Obama my thanks for letting the last disaster allow me to buy up property for 30 cents on the dollar. Doubled my wealth while he was in office. Great for me but for far more they lost everything they worked for. And this loss got paid by tax payers.
5 years ago we dam near bought 1 foreclosed home in KW for 75 K. Yes , many homes got sold off for less than 25 cents on the dollar. The reason it happened was loss of jobs. Very hard to find any people saying Obama helped them. And Killary made it clear she was going to keep the country in the direction Obama had it going.
Was always one to follow winners and Trump dam sure is a winner. What our country needs is a leader with a business head and we now have that man.

What many might not have noticed is many blacks voted for TRUMP.

Like it or not many voted for Trump not because they think he was a good choice but simply to keep Clinton out.

Just think of what would happen if you were ordered to turn over evidence (e mails) and you destroyed them. Yes you would go to prison. Hope Trump does find a way to indeed put her behind bars. Could we have allowed a person with no respect of the law run our country ? Hopefully the Clintons will go away.

I voted for Jill Stein, too, in the general election. I stayed out of the partisan primaries, because I am an Independent and could not vote in those races.

I bet back in 2008, a deal was made: Obama promised to back Hillary after he was done being president, and that’s why Joe Bidden never entered the 2016 picture as a Democrat candidate, and but for Bernie Sanders, Hillary would have been a shoe-in Democratic nominee. Sanders would have beaten Trump. (In the old days they stoned prophets.)

Hillary was the Democrats’ Tet Cruz. The worst possible candidate the Democrats could field. She had gravely jeopardized US national security. She and Bill made mints sleeping with the enemy (Arabs – Islam). She had a lot of difficulty telling the truth, even before she filed to run. My goodness, did that become far more glaring after Bernie caught fire. Then, er, Wikileaks. Otherwise, Hillary would have lied her way into the Offal Orifice.

America did not need Wikileaks, the Russians, the Chinese, to explain Trump to Americans. Trump outed his own self, over and over again. The redneck billionaire, who only sees the fairest in the land when he looks in the mirror. Maybe he never heard of King Nebucadnezzar. (read all about his comeuppance in the Book of Daniel, any Christian Bible).

After all the times Trump screwed people he owed money, what foreign leader will trust anything Trump promises he’s gonna do?

Actually, Trump is a genetically-modified Klingon clone.

Trump does, however, seem to get what Islam has in mind for America, which went right over Obama, Hillary, Bernie and the Democrats’ heads.

If I were ISIS, I’d be really worried about when the Trump drone up above is gonna blow me and my family to kingdom come.

If I were Trump, I’d be really worried about being shot dead by an American before a jihadist can do away with me. Then, wow, Mike Pence is president. Right wing Christian extremists died and gone to heaven right her on this here earth!!! Sorry, Ted Cruz, you should’ve kissed Trump’s member and gotten the nod to be his running mate.

The Hillary-at-all-costs Demos cost themselves the White House, the Senate, The House, and, wait and see, the US Supreme Court. Way to go!!!!

Russia is rightly terrified of Islam. America should be. Won’t surprise me if Putin and Trump team up to make Islam wish it had never poked the Bear and Uncle Sam. All that oil and natural gas Russia and America have, what do Putin and Trump care if Islam can’t sell its oil, or can’t even get into its oil fields, which have come to resemble Chernobyl.

Well, the silver lining. President Hillary-Bill would have been boring compared to President Trump.

This election was not just about Clinton versus Trump. It shows the country is not happy with its direction over the last 8 years. In addition to losing in the Presidential election, Democrats lost over 900 local elections to Republicans across the country. The country is tired of 8 years of liberal (Obama and Clinton) policies. Any Republican who ran against any Democrat would have probably won.

This country was tired of Bush and the damage he did to the country as well. Let’s face it – this country is run by power and money, and most of the people just don’t qualify for anything but whatever trickles down – and it’s proven not to be much as the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

Trump is the epitome of the white men of the 60’s and before who thought they walked on water and felt women and minorities were meant to be slaves. I suffered through discrimination by having white men tell me that I couldn’t have jobs because I was a woman, even though I was more qualified than the white males given those jobs. Imagine having a boss who asked how something is done, disagrees, and then comes back to ask again because his way didn’t work! I quickly left jobs like that, telling HR that the company failed during the probation period, but it was extremely frustrating. I empathize with people who still face discrimination, and Trump insured that everyone of color, especially Muslims and those of other Eastern religions will face discrimination (primarily because too many people in this country haven’t a clue about any of the religions and assume all to be Muslims who, thanks to Trump, should be hated). It’s happening now.

Despite what you wrote, a majority of women did not vote for Trump. Women of color and white college-educated women voted for Clinton. Just as the Equal Rights Amendment wasn’t accepted by uneducated females, especially white southern belles who were subservient to white males and housewives who were dependant on husbands, so did they fall for Trump’s demagogury. Older white men, of course, were yearning for the old days when they were king of the hill, so no surprise that they voted for Trump.

But my biggest concern is that all his life, Trump made money on the backs of the middle class (how many businesses has he stiffed?) and foreign, often illegal, labor which he payed (pays) less than minimum wage. He’s insulted women, minorities, and non-christians as well as our military veterans. He has no concept of nuclear warfare, and he’s no friend of wildlife and the environment by denying climate change. He claims jobs were farmed out (as he did himself) to foreign countries and lies about bringing back jobs, because many of those jobs were lost to automation and will never return. He helped put steel workers out of business in this country by buying foreign steel. He’s unethical and immoral, and I’ve never known anyone with such major character flaws to change. The one bright ray of hope in all this is, despite his rhetoric that only he can accomplish anything, it will take more than just him in this country. And it will be really interesting to see if his promise of term limits for Congress comes to fruition or if those are just more empty words.

Joe Biden regrets not running for President, but at the time, he’d come out of a year of watching his son die from a brain tumor and was emotionally unable to contemplate the logistics of a decision to run. I would have loved to have had him run, but having lost my younger brother when he was just 17, I understood his pain and the strain loss puts on an entire family for a very long time.

So for now, Trump is not my president-elect nor will he by my president until he earns my trust and the trust of the majority of voters in this country.

Tell Cynthia Helana sends her regards and tell her about these two sites. She’ll like them.

Thanks for the correction. White women overall voted 53% for Trump, but Black and Hispanic women voted overwhelmingly for Clinton, giving her an overall advantage of 54-42, according to exit polls by Edison Research.

I am sure Trump will somehow survive without your trust and support. True Americans except the system and who won. They also put full trust behind that winner. Had Hillary won no I would not been happy but would accept it and supported her. I dam sure never wanted Obama but the man still ran our country. One of our tenants is black and also a friend. I was bit shocked the night before election when he said was no question that Trump would win. Like to think his and my vote helped keep Hillary out. Neither are the best we could found but out of the 2 was the best we could do. Hillary is not placing blame on the FBI for her failure. What a stupid bitch. It was her e mails and she got caught. True , without the e mail issue she might have won. She can finish her life with her rapist husband. Dam she must be proud of him.

P.S. Looks to me a king, or a queen, is what America actually needs. Not by virtue of bloodline, but by being elected by a majority of the American people. A majority. Not by the electoral college. For, say, one 8-year term. Subject to the usual recall methods used against selfish, egotistical, brutal despots in the past.

This is what is really sad in this country. Muslims are people like all of us, but Trump has unleashed hate in this country. From his Twitter post re the demonstrations, it’s clear that he still doesn’t ‘get it.’

I don’t need to go live in a country to know what the people are.
I was born and raised in this USA and seen the results of who we let in. You may be an exception but you are here now for a reason. If life was better in muslim countries must assume you would be there. I never been to Cuba either but from Cuban friends I understand why they left. Also have Mexican friends and understand why they wish to live here. Do I trust Muslims ? Hell no. Are there some good ones, yes likely. Are good and bad in all races. What the majority are is generally a good indication of what to excpect.

You, like many others, speak from a position of ignorance. There ARE good and bad in all races and religions, but the majority of people everywhere are good. Given your command of grammar and the English language, I’d also say you aren’t the most educated, either, so I understand your inability to grasp any concepts which prove you don’t know what you’re talking about. BTW, born in New York, NY and proud of it.

We are ignorant if we don’t think like you LOL. Yep typical NY attitude. So you admit some Muslims are bad. I too was raised in the 60’s and yes much was wrong in how women were treated but we are long out of the 60’s. What was it like in 1900 ? Likely a lot worse. Look forward and you will do better.

i just don’t understand why people cannot see this… the president is selected, not voted on. the owners put in office exactly who they wanted to put in office. it doesn’t matter who you voted for. trump was put in for a reason; a reason that cannot be good. my personal opinion is that the U.S. and world economy will be crashed, and the owner’s useful idiot trump, will garner the blame. easier to blame a buffoon that they can point to as such, and as “voted” on by the people, then an establishment hack that may shine an unwelcome light on them. even with the proven idiocy of the american populace, do you really think that a clown of such monumental proportion as trump could climb to the top of the political heap legitimately?
c’mon people, think; if you were in control of the “system” and wielded all the power, would you permit that power, that system, to be at the mercy of voters of every 4 years?

Only thing she has coming is a conviction and prison term. But just like the BUBBA system you have in Key West she will never even see court. She is as crooked as they come. Maybe she should move to KW and run for something. Corruption is something she is dam good at so be no problem being mayor.

Not saying Trump will be great but this is like a choice of what to eat for lunch. Shit on a stick or 5 guys burgers. And yes 5 guys make a fantastic burger.

Yes Trump is likely in danger of some moslim trying to kill him. I have faith in the secret service to protect him. Be an American and give the man a well deserved chance to fix a really f—- up mess handed to him. He has my full support till he proves he is the wrong man.

Hope his first act is to kill Obamacare and maybe give back the stolen fine money. Likely we have seen our last black president because of Obama. No am not racist but he sure was.

What I do not understand is anyone wasting a vote on a no chance in hell of winning. It was either Clinton or Trump. Thankfully people made the right choice. Not often I stay up to 3 AM but was well worth it. Never slept better and will have a party Jan 20 th when the takeover is finished.

My point here is that Hillary would not kept her promises either. There is still a very high chance of another recession like we had in 08. And that would still happen even if Hillary had won.

I do not blame Obama for that recession but he did not do anything to fix the cause. That recession was caused by over inflated house values. Banks were offering loans of amounts that were higher than value. The loss of jobs fueled that fire and with Obama’s health care many could not pay the mortgage. Employers could not stay open with the high costs of Obama care. That resulted in firing or closing doors. Next was loss of jobs. That resulted in a flood of forclosed properties. I personally watched a sister inlaw get burned in it. She bought a 3 year old house that sold for $305 k new for $140 k. Within about 1 year it’s value dropped to 75 k. And by the time she handed it back to the bank it was in the 50’s.
So understand the cause of that crash. And understand the government bailed out the banks or they would gone broke. Never in all my years starting in 1976 had I seen property drop in value. My wife was only 17 when we bought our first house.

Am I worried if it crashes again ? NO. It simply means we will buy up more when it crashes. But we are investors and stand to profit again. Sadly many more will get burned and end up renting not owning.

Clearly you are not a Trump supporter and that is fine. Had Hillary won do you really think she would have saved us ? Yes she messed up by basically saying she would be another Obama and our country could not affort another 4 years of his type of thinking.

An old quote: Now is the time for all good men (and women) to come to the aid of their country. Give President Trump a chance, and if he then falls flat on his face that is the time to jump on him but not now. I believe we have already seen a different side of President Trump with his demeanor of a more humble and reflective tone. His success will depend heavily on those surrounding him and who will be there for necessary advice, and so far that looks promising. There are many, but three of my favorites are – Rudy Giuliani, Governor John Kasich and ex-U.N. Ambassador, John Bolton, who the Left loathed or still loathes for some reason. I have heard some didn’t like his mustache, but he has since trimmed it so that might not be a problem, anymore.

One thing for certain, with President Trump we will have a man who loves America and shows it, and will put this country’s needs first with consideration of the art of compromise and détente with other countries.. And don’t underestimate that intangible, because the feeling of that CAN help give us a new and better outlook of America and life itself.

Get behind our new president and be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

Actually, he learned from Obama that it isn’t as easy as he thought. What is really worrying is that his children, supposedly those who will run his companies in a “blind trust,” are part of the transition team and picking lobbyists and rich friends for positions of power. So much for screwing the establishment as he championed in his platform. Looks like it will be more of the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

I have no problem with getting richer. Do you ?
Most parents hope theirs kids do better than they did. Me and my wife worked long and hard to get what we have now. Took advantage of every smart move we found. That is the Trump way. And yes now retired and can easily afford as many visits to Key West as we wish. 5 or 6 times a year is enough as we usually run out of things to do after a week.

I’m definitely not talking about you gaining a few more dollars – I’m talking about the multi-millionaires and billionaires – the Forbes 400. As well, the Trump way was to stiff small businesses because he could, to hire undocumented workers and import foreign workers because he didn’t have to pay them minimum wage, to treat women like sheep, and to discriminate on the basis of anything he didn’t like. This is what I don’t like about Trump. He claims to want to help the very people that he’s been screwing all his life. Guess we’ll see.

Well I will accept that you have a low opinion of Trump. Hopefully in time that will change. I learned years ago that very few get rich working by the hour. Yes I hired many workers in the past and yes made money off of them. That is how the business world works. I dam sure never gave anyone a job that would not profit me in the end. Most of our money was made in real estate.
It is all about OPM. Did I make a good choice or not will soon be known. I must admit I never managed to get a city to make my down payment to buy rental property. Was that not a Trump type business deal ? Now look at Perry Court LOL, rents went up.

Some of these comments about insurance industry tickle me. Somebody needs to re-enact the Glass-Steagall Act. The insurance and banking regulations are a mess after Pres. Clinton allowed investment bankers to start selling securities, which had hithertofore, prohibited. You can’t have a market economy without risk insurance protections. Banking and Insurance laws are co-mingled and have always been a prime example of home rule (statism) vs federalism.

I retract my former assuredness that the Republicans will not abolish the filibuster, opening the way for Trump to make a number of appointments to the supreme Court. I just became aware of a threat Harry Reid wishes he never made. My assurance that McConnell will NOT change the filibuster rule MAY still be correct, but Reid’s threat changes my calculus. I apologize for not having known about this earlier. My readers trust me, and two mistakes in one column maybe means it is time for me to retire. This doubles the number of corrections I have had to make in the previous 8 years.

On Aug 31, 2016 Reid told the New York times the following:

Senator Harry Reid says Democrats should move to curtail the filibuster if they win the White House and Senate in November only to run up against persistent use of the tactic by Republicans.

“Unless after this election there is a dramatic change to go back to the way it used to be, the Senate will have to evolve as it has in the past,” Mr. Reid told [NYT], referring to a former tradition of rarely mounting filibusters. “But it will evolve with a majority vote determining stuff. It is going to happen.”

He has condemned Republican reliance on the filibuster to impede President Obama. Mr. Reid’s frustration ultimately led Senate Democrats in 2013 to weaken the minority party’s ability to block most executive branch nominations. But he won’t be in office to challenge the filibuster. He is retiring.

However, he is the first to publicly express what other lawmakers and aides have talked about more quietly: the possibility that Democrats will take drastic action if they are triumphant at the polls only to be blocked by the gridlock that has plagued Washington in a new Clinton administration.

“What choice would Democrats have?” asked Mr. Reid, who lamented the inability of a stalemated Congress to take on big issues. “The country can’t be run this way, where nothing gets done.”

Eliminating the filibuster on legislation or Supreme Court nominees, who were not included in the 2013 changes, would be an earth-shattering transformation in the culture of the Senate. Any attempt to abolish or significantly scale it back would, without doubt, provoke a furious partisan fight.